Forbes: The Revivalists Enjoying Their ‘Overnight Success’ Ten Years In With Hit Song (Interview)

“One of the most tried and true clichés in music is there is no such thing as an overnight sensation. It is used so frequently because multiple times a year a band comes out of relative obscurity to deliver an unexpected hit and people wonder, “Where did they come from?”

This year that band is New Orleans seven-piece the Revivalists, who have delivered one of the best and catchiest radio singles of the years with the superb “Wish I Knew You.” A sublime pop gem that mines nostalgia in an infectious way, the song has been a radio staple for most of this year and, if there is any justice, should be a Grammy contender in 2018 in the rock and alternative categories.

Where the no overnight success story is a cliché comes true is that the success of the song comes 10 years after the band made their debut. A decade in, frontman David Shaw and guitarist Zack Feinberg say they are very happy with the band’s gradual road to radio stardom.

“I’m glad it happened this way because I don’t think we would have been able to handle the success 10 years ago,” Shaw says.

I spoke with both about the success of the song, how Shaw was so into the song he almost got hit by a car listening to the early mix and how their divergent musical tastes, from Tool to Pearl Jam, have led to their distinctly Revivalists sound.”